Technological Field
The present disclosure relates to a method for integrating electronic circuits with a textile layer containing electrically conductive yarns. More specifically the present disclosure relates to a method of integrating a stretchable interposer with a textile layer. The present disclosure further relates to a textile fabric containing electrically conductive yarns and electronic circuits electrically connected to such electrically conductive yarns.
Description of the Related Technology
Integration of electronic devices or electronic circuits with a textile fabric can add new functionalities to the textile, allowing the realization for example of clothes with integrated sensors, luminous textile or wearable computing.
U.S. Publication No. 2006/0258205 relates to a method for integrating an electric component with a textile including a conductor line system, the conductor line system having an arrangement of a plurality of electric conductor lines, the electric component being connected to specific electric conductor lines. An adapter element is arranged between the electric component and the conductor line system to redistribute the pads of the component to the conductive lines in the textile. The adapter element has at one side a connecting portion that is to be connected to the specific electric conductor lines and on the other side a connecting portion that is to be connected to the electronic component. Connecting points are first prepared in the conductor line system by locally removing the external insulation of the electric conductor lines of the textile. The adapter element is then fixed by means of an adhesive that makes a solid mechanical connection with the basic fabric of the textile. In the portions of the textile connecting points an electrically conductive adhesive is provided which allows for a selective electrical connection between the adapter and the textile. This approach requires that the connecting arrangement of the adapter element is precisely aligned to the arrangement of the conductive lines of the textile in order to avoid faulty connections. However, the alignment accuracy is mainly dependent on the accuracy limitations of the placing tool used. For this reason, the use of this approach may require that the size of the connection points (electrical contacts) is relatively large, so as to compensate for the limited accuracy of the placing tools used for placing the adapter to the desired connection points on the textile. However, increasing the size of the connection points may limit the flexibility of the textile.
In “Contacting electronics to fabric circuits with nonconductive adhesive bonding”, T. Linz et al, The Journal of the Textile Institute, Vol. 103, No. 10, October 2012, 1139-1150, a contacting approach based on nonconductive adhesive bonding is proposed. This approach involves the application of pressure to displace an adhesive out of a contacting area and curing of the adhesive at elevated temperature. Because of the use of pressure and an elevated temperature, this process is limited to textile materials that are not damaged by the pressures and/or temperatures used.